Ego Death

Be wary of those who tell you to kill the ego. Is it really worth a war? Do you really want that blood on your hands? 

Be even more wary of those who have the arrogance to want to give you an ego-death experience. It takes a lot of ego to want to give someone an ego-death.

If you begin that fight, how do you define the enemy? Where is it to be found? Is it in the mirror? Is it in the mind?

What is harder than fighting an enemy is fighting a phantom. What is harder still is fighting yourself.

There is a subtle dichotomy here, a beautiful duality that if I don't point it out, some will miss it entirely and go about their lives wrestling this phantom. It is this: who is trying to kill what? If you rest here, then the what fades, the idea of an ego that needs to be overcome is overshadowed by the who that you are. If you make that leap, a leap to nowhere, a leap to right here, then where is the enemy? The enemy is then but a part of what arises in that who of great timeless awareness. There you do not fight, but you integrate and accept. Because just as the ocean cannot fight a wave and just as the wave is made out of the ocean, so too there is a natural waving motion that does not call for exorcism but for integration.

It is just the story. It is the narrative. Look at your mind and discover that the thoughts are made out of the mind in the same way that a flame is formed in fire. If you know the essence, then the appearance changes; it is seen also as the essence. If you know the essence, you don't then reject the appearance, you let it be, you embrace it. 

The problem is not the ego-structure. 

The problem is not knowing the essence that is ever-present.

Excerpt from Walking the Forest Path: Volume 1, available in early 2025.